Seamless head and part of toy of felt or the like



M. FRANCO. SEAMLESS HEAD AND PART OF TOY 0F FELT OR THE LIKE.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 29, I921.

Patented Feb. 211, 1922.

sari

l iimieluo Eeimoo, or ,T'URIN, ITALY.

Modem; i

1T0 an whom it mag lconcern:

,Bezitknown that I, MARIo Fmnoo, a citizen of thew-Kingdom. of Italy, residingat Turin, .18T'V'13, Ame deo Peyron,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Seamless Heads and Parts of Toysof-Felt-or'the like; and I do hereby declare the followingltowbe a full, clear, and exact description of the invention,:s'uch as-will enable others skilled in the art to which it 'appertains to make-andmse 'the same.

This invention relates to-the manufacture of toys of felt or similar soft materials.

It has been noted that the recent manufacture of toys, such as dolls and animals, has particularly produced that kind of toys unbreakable of felt or like soft materials, full of oakum or padding or other light and soft stuff.

Those toys however are often not very nice, because many stitches or seams are necessary to join the several pieces, these stitches corresponding always to the most important parts of the head, so that they generally disfigure the face in the middle, which is ob'ectionable, from an aesthetic standpoint. esides the working of sewing the several cut and stamped pieces is long and difficult, and also expensive.

My invention has for its object to provide means for the manufacture of heads and other parts of dolls or animals, of felt, leather, stuff, or similar soft materials in one piece, without stitches or seams, taking advantage of the yielding of the said coats,

and stamping them by means of suitable moulds. The figures of the annexed draw- .ings show diagrammatically the parts embodying my invention, used by way of example to perform a dolls head.

.With similar moulds suitably modified I can obtain heads of several animals, and other parts of the human and animal bodies.

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a mould or pattern, composed -'of many pieces, i. e. a sectional mould or pattern, of a dolls head.

Fig. 2 is an elevation of one of the boxor closedmoulds, of which two are used, corresponding to the mould Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 shows the way to begin the spreading and the stamping of the coatyof the soft material, as it will be hereinafter explained. I I v The pattern Fig. 1 will be produced in as r 3 Specification of Letters Patent.

. Patented net. 211, 922.

Application filed January 29, 1921: Serial No.-441,061.

many piecesas the amount of the cavities inv themould will require, and maybe in- .differentlyinade up 'of wood,'or metal, or

other suitable material; theboxor closedmould Fig.2 is generally made=up of metal,

in order to allowiit to be strongly pressed and caused to adhereto the pattern.

Ithas beenproved however that the boxmould. Fig. 2, can be made. of hard rubber, because this latter fits with its projections in a 3.1L the cavities of the" pattern, "whilst maintaining a' certain elasticity'inorder to support the residual tBHSiOII IOf :the felt for similar material, allowing it to be Slightly deformed, during the moulding operation.

In the drawing the pattern consists of parts A B C D E'F, divided each other through vertical planes, reciprocally parallel or at a right angle. The box-or-closedmould is usually made in two parts, one of which is shown in Fig. 2.

The mode of operation is the following:

I prepare the felt, or leather, coat or covering by tarring same with a light daubing of glue. hen the coat is dry, I expose it to the evaporation of the boiling water, and during the softening action of this latter, I stretch the felt or equivalent upon the pattern accurately adjusting and strongly pulling it by all sides. After having adapted the felt or the like to the pattern, by evaporating it again, if necessary, on the boiler,

. I bind or nail with pins its lower edge Gr H (Fig. 3) to thebottom of the said pattern. Then I again expose the pattern so covered to the efficient action of the steam of the boiler, in order to make the material as soft as possible, and I shut it in proper position within two closed moulds such as the one shown in Fig. 2, conveniently warmed, and I press the outward moulds so that the corresponding parts of the pattern and of these latter exactly register, sufiiciently compressing the felt, or equivalent. In few moments of compression, the material moisted by the steam, will be dry and hardened, and

the pattern can be removed from the moulded of the same material, of suitable sizes to 1 fit almost exactly to the mould. This bag, whilst being in a single piece, may also have some stitches, at a right angle with the edge similar tools. It Will be easily understood that the same system hereinbefore described and illustrated in the annexed drawings as applied to a dolls head may be employed to form any part. whatever of toys, of the kind referred V Furthermore I can embody my invention also by employing'a mould, such as that of Fig. 1, but 1n a single: piece of material,

such as gilders plaster or macerated paper, to'be broken and removed after the mouldoperation. v

Iran do that as much as the aforesaid stitches, without departing from the principle of the present invention, which is to provide toys so that they dont have stitches or seams in the most visible parts.

What I claim is:

In the manufacture of toys, such as dolls and animals, the method of moulding different toy parts from a single piece or blank of felt, leather, or similar flexible material, which consists in forming the blank into bag-shape, then coating said bag-shaped blank with an. adhesive, then permitting said adhesive to dry, then softening said bagshaped blank by the application; of

steam thereto, and, finally, moulding. the

bag-shaped blank between a die vand a matrix.

In witness whereof,I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of two subscribing witnesses. v I 1 MARIO FRANCO.

Witnesses:

A. GULIo SAOERDOTE, ZMBERTO FRANOICONI. 

